Page 115 of Echoes From the Void

Enough, my father’s voice shakes the spaces between realities. Void-purple light bleeds from his form as more corruption transfers between us.You must stop. The corruption will destroy?—

“No,” I manage through clenched teeth, my wolves bracing my failing body. The alpha female’s eyes meet mine, carrying understanding older than time. “It won’t destroy me. Because I’m choosing this. Like Mom chose you. Like you chose to protect us. Like we’re all choosing something better than what came before.”

The fourth wave brings understanding that cuts deeper than pain:

All this time, the void’s corruption wasn’t just poison. It was loneliness. Isolation. The weight of standing guard alone for so long that entropy itself became preferable to solitude. Each pulse of corruption carries echoes of endless vigil, of watching others fall while maintaining his post, of choosing again and again to bear this burden so others wouldn’t have to.

But my father isn’t alone anymore.

My shadows surge stronger, wrapping around his ancient form as I take more of his burden. Each pulse of corruption burns through my essence, but now I understand what I’m really absorbing:

Millennia of silent vigil.

Centuries of watching others fall to darkness.

The desperate hope when he found my mother.

The fierce love that made him let her go to protect us.

The weight of every choice that led to this moment.

“You can let go now,” I whisper as his form begins to stabilize, void-purple corruption fading from his edges. Through our connection, I feel him fighting his protective instincts, struggling against millennia of bearing this alone. “Let me carry this. Let me show you what willing sacrifice can do.”

Through our twin bond, I feel Finn’s light pulse with fierce pride. His power reaches for mine across impossible space, helping stabilize the corruption as it transfers. Through our pack bonds, I feel their distant work echoing what I’m attempting—healing through choice, restoration through love.

My father’s essence shifts again, corruption flowing faster now as he finally, finally begins to trust. To let go. To believe that his daughter might be strong enough to bear what he’s carried alone for so long. His massive form shimmers as ancient poison releases its hold, shadows remembering their original purpose.

My shadow, his voice carries wondering love.My hope. My impossible child.

The final wave of corruption hits like a supernova of pain.

For one eternal moment, I am everything and nothing—shadow and void, beginning and end, corruption and hope. My wolves’ forms blur as reality itself bends around the transfer of power. The alpha female’s howl carries frequencies that shake the foundations of void-space.

Then...something changes.

The corruption flowing into me begins to transform. Not like the gentle healing my pack performs above, or the balanced merging Finn and I managed before. This is something older. More fundamental. This is entropy remembering its first purpose.

Through the searing pain, I see truth:

The void wasn’t meant to be corruption. It was meant to be possibility. The space between moments where change could happen. Where choice could matter. Where endings could become beginnings.

My father’s form solidifies as the last of his ancient burden flows into me. His shadows no longer writhe with poison, but move with their original grace. He is magnificent—power and protection and love made manifest. Starlight gleams through his darkness like the first dawn breaking across reality itself.

Daughter, his voice carries millennium of wonder.What have you done?

“Reminded corruption what it was meant to be.” The words come from somewhere deeper than thought as my body absorbs the transformed entropy. My wolves press close, their forms shifting to accommodate this new understanding of shadow’s purpose. “Showed it that willing sacrifice creates something different than forced burden.”

Instead of feeling heavier, damaged, consumed, I feel...expanded. Like my shadows have learned new ways to move. New purposes to serve. The void around us pulses not with hunger now, but with possibility.

Through our twin bond, I feel Finn’s fierce joy. His light reaches for my transformed shadows, showing me glimpses of the frozen light shifters beginning to stir with new hope. Through our pack bonds, I feel their distant recognition of what’s happening. Above us, reality itself seems to shiver with potential.

“Ready?” I ask my father, reaching for his restored form. The alpha female raises her voice in ancient song, calling to everything that forgot its first purpose. “There are others waiting to be reminded what they were meant to be. What we were all meant to be.”

His ancient eyes meet mine—no longer carrying corruption’s weight, but shining with transformed purpose.Together?

“Together,” I agree. “As family. As choice. As love.”

My wolves raise their voices in songs older than time, calling to light shifters still frozen between moments. Calling to shadow beasts still fleeing corruption. Calling to everything that forgot its original purpose.

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